What happens now? Will the Dems and Republicans in the Senate who love funding the never-ending war in Ukraine? Dumping oodles of taxpayer money to a war that’s going nowhere? And, if it passes the Senate, what does Biden do?
The House of Representatives approved more than $14 billion in Israel aid Thursday afternoon setting up House Speaker Mike Johnson’s first major legislative clash with the Senate and White House.
The bill, titled the “Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act” cleared the lower chamber by a vote of 226-196 with most Republicans voting for the legislation and most Democrats voting against it. Two Republicans defected and voted against the bill while twelve Democrats voted for it.
Aid to Israel, a close U.S. ally, as it fights a war against Hamas militants, has garnered widespread bipartisan support, but Johnson’s proposal for standalone Israel funding has drawn considerable backlash from the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House.
Why? They can debate the merits of a Ukraine package separately. Here’s the kicker
President Joe Biden requested Congress pass a broad national security funding bill that includes money for Ukraine and U.S. border security. Johnson’s bill only includes assistance for Israel — a clear opening salvo from the newly-crowned speaker as he seeks to extract conservative policy wins with a narrow GOP majority.
To pay for the Israel assistance, the bill includes a provision pulling back additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service that was originally allocated from the Inflation Reduction Act, a law championed by Biden and congressional Democrats.
The thing about politics is that sometimes people have to give a little to get a little. Democrats do not like that, because they believe they should get everything the want and give nothing, and the GOP has been so wimpy this century that it often ends up working that way. There’s little give and take, scratch my back I scratch yours.
Senate leadership however has shown no appetite for a standalone bill. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., derided Johnson’s bill as a “deeply flawed proposal” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Instead, Schumer promised the Senate would craft a bipartisan foreign aid bill that appears to resemble Biden’s broad supplemental request. The Senate’s bill will “include funding for aid to Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian aid including for Gaza, and competition with the Chinese Government.”
Why? For one thing, why are we giving any aid to the Islamic extremists in Gaza? Let their allies do that. They hate the U.S. Let Iran and other Islamic extremist nations help them out with food and water and stuff. It’s very easy to do a standalone Ukraine bill. And, there’s no telling what the competition with the Chicoms actually means.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., represents one of the most Jewish districts in the country. He was one of the twelve Democrats who voted for the bill because he felt Israel needed bipartisan support following the Oct. 7 attack, but said it was a “disgusting” political move to force Democrats to choose between funding Israel or the IRS.
That’s Politics 101, dude. Biden and your Senate Comrades are trying to include all sorts of unrelated stuff in big funding bill.
The mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and New York are pressing to meet with President Joe Biden about getting federal help in managing the surge of migrants they say are arriving in their cities with little to no coordination, support or resources from his administration.
Pope Francis said on Wednesday that he will attend the COP28 climate conference starting next month in Dubai, the first time a pontiff will be at the U.N. environmental meeting since they began in 1995.
Every parent of young children has awoken on Nov. 1 to the aftermath of Halloween: piles of candy wrappers, discarded costumes, molding pumpkins and decorations demanding to be taken down.
FBI Director Christopher Wray went silent Tuesday when questioned over whether the country is safer since President Biden took office.
After investing billions to adhere to President Joe Biden’s green energy agenda, General Motors (GM) is backtracking on all fronts when it comes to Electric Vehicles (EVs).
